Sharing sacred ground

Now that spring is around the corner I was thinking about how I miss community gardening and with all the talk about eating locally grown produce I’m surprised I don’t see more attempts made where I live to bring people together this way. On the other hand I was excited to learn that Sacramento’s oldest graveyard has such a flourishing gardening club going–there’s even some fascinating information on native bees in this article I never knew. This is such smart thinking, “I went to the other members and said we needed to be a club that does more than just conduct garden tours. The club’s fundraisers are now an important source of revenue for the garden.” Plus, this way interest and care for the area remains constant and self reinforcing.

I was aware through eventful.com about their Adopt-a-Plotprogram and all the tours they give and now my calendar is full of activities planned for the spring. The work of this dedicated committee reminds me of the event programming librarians do for their communities and it’s another example of cemeteries having the same potential for teaching and being centers of learning, culture and community that libraries have done in the past. And here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. One of the oldest cemeteries in the country, the Mount Auburn Cemetery, has even partnered with their local library to offer lectures celebrating their 175th Anniversary (scroll down a bit to see the wide range of topics). What an absolutely wonderful outdoor museum that place must be. I may have to make a pilgrimage to Cambridge one of these days. (Tip of the hat to Paulina for the link).